how to make helmet glossy

I'm making a fondant covered Seahawks football helmet 3-D cake and was wondering if you use pearl dust or confectioners glaze to make it shiny. The helmet is Navy blue. If you have other suggestions to make it glossy I'd love to hear it!Jacqui

Hi there I made a Raiders helmet last month and used Luster Dusts to make all the silver. For the Black strip down the center I actually used Black Liquid Gel dye and diluted it just a tad with Rum and painted that on and it stayed totally shiny. You can see how the two looked on my helmet in my pics on here.To get your Navy shade though I would try Midnight Blue and Navy together so then you get a nice shimmer. Use Rum or Vodka and paint it on with a very soft bristled brush (look at the paint brushes in a art store) or you can airbrush it on if you have one of those.

Thank you hula_girl3. I did make a small 6" sample one. I had trouble with the pearl dust. It didnt' go on evenly. Did you use silver luster dust or pearl dust? Do you have any tips? Also, how did you make your mask? I used wire and covered it with fondant but I didn't like how it looked. Do you have your own edible printer or did you take it to a store? I was wondering if Walmart could do that for me or if it was copy right so they may not. I'll attach the picture of my sample cake. Please give me any tips you can. Oh my husband said I placed the logo on incorrectly so I now know for the 10" cake I'll be making. Thanks in advance!

I used a mixture of Luster and Petal dusts to create that shade of gray and silver, and I mixed those with rum and then applied. Were you trying to brush it on dry? If you were then that is your problem right there, if not provide me with a little more details as to what you did so I can figure out what went wrong.

I used a product from a company called Swiss Chalet for my Face mask....I believe the name is Deco Magic and its a "sugar paste" I just rolled out a strip and then cut it to the center and incerted a wire that was already bent into the right shape. Then I just pinched it and smoothed it with my hands and painted it after it was attached. On my face mask I went strait into the side of the helmet instead of taking them up to connect in one point like you did, that made assembly for me easier since I just stabbed it all into the cake.

If you decide you do not want to use any Pearl, Petal or Luster dust I would suggest just painting on an extract like Lemon, Almond or a Clear Vanilla so that when the guest go to taste the fondant it has a nicer flavor to it. To do that just take a soft paint brush (u can get that at any art supply store) and dip it in a little bowl of the Extract and then just start painting it on.

Thank you Belinda! Yes, I did try to apply pearl dust on dry. It looked terrible! I'll try to apply wet instead. Yes, my husband made a wire mask and he sinched the ends. I tried covering with fondant and the inside of the mask look terrible since I couldn't smooth it and I was having a terrible time with Satin Ice. It got so sticky when I added the Americolor gel coloring to it. So what is the Deco Magic? I'll have to look it up.

Its this soft but firm product that I guess would be like a modeling chocolate and its very white. I just molded it then painted it but you can die it, just knead it with cornstarch if u can get ahold of it. If not you can always try modeling chocolate or as its also known as chocolate plastique.

When I made my mask I had just used those long strips of floral wire they sell at micheals that are coated in that green stuff. Their pretty easy to bend into the shape you need and the stuff sticks to em.

I made it after i carved it so that i could mold the wires to what i needed exactly and after that i covered them with my sugar paste. I painted the face mask after I finished decorating the helmet and attached it so I wouldnt get any finger prints in the mask.

Oh no worries at all with the questions....isnt that what we're all hear for? Since I used the Deco Magic I didnt need royal icing cuz the stuff just needed a small touch of water and it stuck to itself. On my mask those little connector pieces have small bits of wire to i just carefully ballanced them on each other and then smoothed the seems together. By having the wire in the connectors I was able to have the mask standing out far without worrying about how it would sag as the cake got soft.

You can use the royal icing but I would have a thin paint brush handy so you can use it to wipe away any excess that pops out of the seems. Then you can keep it looking clean and more realistic. I would also suggest using internal wire in those small pieces so they dont get too top heavy.

Okay, so here it is. I started out with using gumpaste for the mask and letting it dry for a couple of days. Friday came (cake was due next afternoon) and the mask crumbled in my hands. This was at 4pm. I was also hoping to use a friends edible printer for the logo and it wasn't working so I lost 4 hours (1-4pm). So now my cake is carved and crumb coated and it's already 4pm on Friday...YIKES! I took Belinda's advice and started using floral wire to design my mask, covered it in gumpaste...and it worked. I coved my cake in fondant (did it twice) and even then I wasn't totally happy as it had stretched a bit forming "elephant" skin just above the face area but I had to move onward as time was running out. I made my logo by cutting out the shape using black and blue fondant and laying it on the white fondant background...wow...looked great and things were moving along. I finished at 10pm. Still not happy with the stretched out elephant skin fondant but I had to live with it and hope the customer was going to be happy with it. She had friends pick it up and they loved it so hopefully she will too. The party is tommorrow for the Seahawk's game and it's a surprise for her husband. Whew! Thank Belinda and everyone else for all of your help...I couldn't have done it without you!Jacqui

Somehow I came across this comment. I have never made a shiny finish but I read that if you mix a little corn syrup with vodka and then brush it on the fondant, it stays shiny.I'd start with equal amounts of vodka/corn syrup and the keep adding until you get a consistency that it' easy to apply. You may need to do several coats, I guess you can first try it on a small piece of fondant as a test. Good luck amiga!!

AYou can use confectioners glaze http://www.globalsugarart.com/confectioners-glaze-ounces-p-23836.html ...its relaly easy to work with, and the result is great... smells like nail polish, but its edible :)